Fears and cheers in state's hearing on medical marijuana

Ken Dixon

Updated 11:27 pm, Monday, April 22, 2013

HARTFORD -- There was something for nearly everyone to dislike Monday in the state's plan to legalize and distribute marijuana for medical patients.

Family therapists from coastal Guilford and Clinton warned that the law sends the message to teenagers that it's OK to smoke pot. Potential growers claimed that a $2 million required escrow account was too steep and too simple for federal authorities to seize, should they decide to challenge the state law. Farmers worried that a requirement to produce marijuana with active ingredients within a range of 3 percent would be difficult to meet, since active amounts can vary more than that even among the flowers of a single plant.

Cancer survivors, however, expressed gratitude.

"Thank you for what you're doing today," said Tracey Gamer-Fanning, a 42-year-old West Hartford mother of two who is president of the Connecticut Brain Tumor Alliance. A seven-year survivor of terminal brain cancer, Gamer-Fanning says that marijuana, which she inhales via a smokeless vaporizer to avoid carcinogens, makes her life easier. Traditional anti-cancer drugs sedated her and forced her to stay in bed, she said.

"I wanted to come here today to represent not only myself as a brain cancer patient, but every patient who is afraid to come here, is afraid to come on camera, or embarrassed, or physically can't do it," she said.

More than 100 people packed into a State Office Building hearing room and dozens more spilled over into adjacent offices for the hearing on the next phase of Connecticut's path to provide and regulate medical marijuana that started when last year's legislation was signed into law by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

"What we're trying to do is develop a program that serves your interests and hopefully what we've done, aided by the comments that we get here today, will give you the promise that we hope this legislation has," Rubenstein told her.

Rubenstein said the purpose of the hearing was to continue preparing the state to legalize the growing, distribution and use of marijuana for medical patients. Patients have to be identified by doctors and obtain certificates that they would present at licensed dispensaries, to purchase as much as 2.5 ounces of marijuana a month.

The speaker's concerns were wide ranging.

All Joe Palmieri said he wanted was a chance to diversify his crops and possibly grow cannabis on his family farm in Easton.

Palmieri, who heads an eponymous family farm on North Park Avenue in Easton, said local businesses should be given consideration for obtaining one of the cultivation contracts. He also called for the department to revise the $2 million escrow requirement and instead take into account the value of real estate holdings as a performance bond.

Rubenstein, who often got into dialogues with those testifying, said that the U.S. Justice Department could just as soon seize Palmieri's farm as they could the escrow if they wanted to make an issue of the federal illegality.

"Yeah, but it's not as easy," Palmieri replied. "It just won't be gone in a heartbeat. You'll see it coming."

Matt Villmer, a Ridgefield attorney, said his clients are concerned that towns and cities could stand in the way of the medical marijuana industry if they adopt local zoning ordinances that ban such uses.

"These ordinances are surely going to be passed by communities throughout Connecticut," Villmer said.

John Gadea, head of drug enforcement in the DCP, said doctors will be the crucial "gatekeepers" for use of marijuana and must show relationships with patients for whom they prescribe the drug.

The new regulations should mirror the state's pharmacy system and keep a secure chain of production from growing facilities to licensed dispensaries, Gadea said.